What the Press is Saying About Willy Porter

“If you need another flat-top guitar hero, look no further than Willy Porter, a blindingly fleet and maddeningly nimble player. If you’re trying to get the hang of fingerstyle picking, you’ll either curse the dude or forsake all and follow him.” –Riverfront Times

“I found Willy on iTunes six years ago. Went to see him live and joined the converted.“
— Al Kooper (Bob Dylan/Blood, Sweat & Tears)

““Bank” is Porter at the top of his game…“
— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Willy Porter is perhaps best known as a down tuned six string wonder, but as a singer and a writer, and as a showman, he merits equal regard.“
— Puremusic.com

“Thank goodness he doesn’t play the flute.“
— Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull

“Porter is a dazzling acoustic guitarist with a moody baritone…“
— The Washington Post

“Willy plays rhythms that make me want to crawl inside his guitar and sleep there forever.“
— Tori Amos

“With his exquisite, tranquil guitar work, Willy Porter could easily astonish an audience without singing one note. His ability to engage the audience with his personality and intellect raises Porter from the level of guitar wonk into the realm of masterful performer.“
— Earvolution

“…one of the most consistently mesmerizing discs of his notable career.“
— Bill’s Music Forum

“Willy Porter is a relaxed and fearless performer who’ll entertain you as well as move you.“
— Acoustic Guitar Magazine

“As usual, you get a hell of a lot for your listening pleasure with Willy Porter.“
— Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange

Willy Porter – Current Bio

Willy Porter continues on a musical and personal odyssey spanning over two decades, 11 albums, and multiple continents. His journey has been defined by an inquisitive love for humanity and the language that describes what we all hold to be true. Porter’s songs weave a universal perspective about the questions, struggles, and triumphs of human existence. His live shows are guitar-driven grit, soul, silence and muscle– at times electrifying, dynamic, and unique in the way that Porter’s voice blends and fuses with his fret work.

A largely self-taught musician, Porter began treating audiences to his brand of guitar playingand wry storytelling in the late ‘80’s while living in Madison, Wisconsin. In 1990, he released his first full-length independent album, The Trees Have Soul, and the touring life has flowed steadily ever since. Porter has literally logged millions of miles across America, Canada, the UK, and Europe, touring solo, as well as with various incarnations of the Willy Porter Band and in support of artists like Tori Amos, Paul Simon, Jethro Tull, Sting, and Jeff Beck.

Porter’s breakthrough album, Dog Eared Dream, was released in 1994, and the song “Angry Words” quickly became a staple at the burgeoning AAA radio format. This led to a major label deal with BMG/Private Music in 1995. Unfortunately, Private was dismantled by BMG just as Porter was preparing to release his follow-up. With contractual freedom in 1998, Porter quickly signed with the San Francisco-based label Six Degrees. There he released three albums beginning with the studio gem, Falling Forward (1999), produced by multiple Grammy-winner Neil Dorfsman (Dire Straits, Sting). The eponymous Willy Porter (2001) followed featuring great guest performances by Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull and Tony Levin. His fan-favorite solo disc, High Wire Live (2003) was co-produced with Grammy-winner Ben Wisch (Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin).

In 2005 Porter left Six Degrees and launched his own imprint, Weasel Records. Together with longtime keyboardist/ collaborator Dave Adler, Porter produced the atmospheric album Available Light in 2006. His work with Guild & Fender guitars over the next several years would result in the manufacture of the “Willy Porter Signature” acoustic guitar. Porter then took time to record and produce singer/songwriter Natalia Zukerman, on her whip-smart Weasel debut,Brand New Frame (2008). Porter released his next disc,How to Rob a Bank in 2009, the heavily Americana-flavored record featuring the contributions of the LA-based quartet, Raining Jane. Bank was followed witha live disc recorded with the Carpe Diem String Quartet in (2010). This collaboration produced a gorgeous EP featuring several of Porter’s most enduring tunes (“Breathe,” “Paper Airplane,” “Watercolor”), elevated and reinterpreted against a backdrop of lush string arrangements.

In 2011, Porter produced the second Weasel release for Natalia Zukerman, the driving Gas Station Roses. A partnership with Milwaukee-based singer/ songwriter Carmen Nickerson resulted in the album, Cheeseburgers and Gasoline (2013). This spartan production illuminates themes of life-longing and relationship repair, all while balancing the dream of self-actualization on the axle of a carnival’s Tilt-a-Whirl. The record also includes Porter’s brilliant cover arrangement of Peter Gabriel’s “Digging in the Dirt.” Porter’s follow-up release, Human Kindness (2015) incorporated all of his acoustic, electric, and multi-string chops to bear in service of a great selection of songs bearing the influence of soul, rock, blues/Americana, showcasing Porter’s growth as a writer, musician, and producer.

After touring extensively together for more than two years, Porter and Nickerson released a full-length disc of original co-writes: Bonfire to Ash (2016). Produced by Grammy winning producer Ben Wisch (Marc Cohn, Jonatha Brooke) and featuring Bassist Zev Katz and Drummer/Producer Ben Wittman, Bonfire to Ash is a record that charts the experiences bridging the intimate with the universal. Porter and Nickerson borrow from their strong stage chemistry to render the same kind of musical conversation that unfolds in performance within a studio setting. This dialogic style broadens to consider the connections and values forged in the communities we call home (“Living Proof”) and in the responsibility we have to the planet that gives itself to house us (“Plant A Garden”). Bonfire to Ash compiles candid snapshots of the human journey, exposing ideas such as hope, regret, love, loss, and connection that remain immutable against time, history, or place.

In addition to making a life in music, Porter finds ways to make an impact on local and international levels. He is an active supporter of Advocates of Ozaukee, a shelter and treatment facility for victims of domestic violence and abuse in Mequon, Wisconsin. His annual benefit concerts have raised more than $100,000 for this organization to date. He is also an Ambassador for Guitars for Vets, a Milwaukee-based International organization that works to improve the lives of veterans by providing them with guitars and music lessons.

Willy Porter lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife and two children.

Bonfire to Ash -Current Release Bio

Porter Nickerson are a duo that embody the best of what live music has to offer: heart, grit, and the kind of raw musicianship that transforms listeners into long-time fans. Willy Porter’s searing finger-picking guitar style deftly blends with Carmen Nickerson’s lush vocals to create an unforgettable sound that resonates long after the last chord fades.

A virtuoso guitarist, Porter has more than ten albums to his catalogue including Dog Eared Dream (1994) which yielded the top 10 AAA single, “Angry Words.” He has shared the stage with rock and pop luminaries such as Jeff Beck, Sting, Paul Simon, Tori Amos and Jethro Tull. Nickerson is an accomplished Jazz, R&B, and Rock vocalist from the Midwest who has also contributed her talents to studio and voice-over work in L.A. The pair met following the release of Porter’s 2010 album How to Rob a Bank and, finding their musical sensibilities a quick match, began collaborating soon after. The result has been a rich experience of performing and writing: Nickerson’s vocals feature on the yearning “Iowa Sky” from Porter’s 2013 EP Cheeseburgers and Gasoline and on the song “This Train” from 2015’s Human Kindness. In 2016 the pair were featured music guests on NPR’s A Prairie Home Companion, performing on one of Garrison Keillor’s last broadcasts. With more than five years of stage and studio work under their belts, both Porter and Nickerson were excited to fuse their singular talents on a new album of original co-writes: Bonfire to Ash (2016), produced by Grammy winning producer Ben Wisch (Marc Cohn, Jonatha Brooke) and featuring Bassist Zev Katz and Drummer/Producer Ben Wittman.

The songs on this record chart experiences that bridge the intimate with the universal, recognizable in the thirsty shoots of new love (“Old Red Barn”) and in the urgency to act before love skids out of reach forever (“Loving On Her Mind”). Porter and Nickerson borrow from their strong stage chemistry to render the same kind of musical conversation that unfolds in performance within a studio setting. The result are tunes like the aching “If You Stay,” which travels the arc of a relationship born, lost, and tentatively rediscovered and “Earthquake,” a rockin, playful plea for release from the exquisite tension of romance perched on the edge of becoming something else. This dialogic style broadens to consider the connections and values forged in the communities we call home (“Living Proof”) and in the responsibility we have to the planet that gives itself to house us (“Plant A Garden”). Bonfire to Ash compiles candid snapshots of the human journey, exposing ideas such as hope, regret, love, loss, and connection that remain immutable against time, history, or place.

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On ‘Bonfire to Ash’

"Nickerson’s dusty, bluesy phrasing offers a warm counterpoint to Porter’s charred baritone and unpredictable guitar excursions, and the two get what many folkies miss: the way rhythm sets a good story song alight."-Roy Kasten, Riverfront Times.